Saakashvili to a judge: you are a judge as much as I am an astronaut

Georgia’s imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili is attending a trial hearing in his own case in Tbilisi City Court where he had a dispute with a judge. 

The hearing is being held in the case of illegally crossing the border from Ukraine to Georgia at the end of September 2021. 

Saakashvili was looking into the camera while in the court, making a speech in this way, while the judge called on him to address the audience in the room. 

“You are a judge as much as I am an astronaut. I am addressing the public and not Ivanishvili’s (the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili) court,” Saakashvili said. 

He noted that ‘everything that has been done in the country, was done by me.’ 

Saakashvili, who currently holds Ukrainian citizenship, returned to Georgia ahead of 2021 municipal elections, after eight years in political exile, ‘to help the opposition remove the Georgian Dream government from power via snap elections’.

He was convicted in Georgia in absentia for abuse of power back in 2018 and was sentenced to six years in prison. Saakashvili also faces several other charges.